Introduces articles that follow discussing research in progress on assessing foreign language learners at the elementary school levels. The articles describe contexts in Austria, Norway, and Italy. (Author/VWL)

Reports on a small-scale study investigating the implementation of teacher assessment in Italian primary schools where English is taught as a foreign language. (Author/VWL)

Provides an overview of how language skills in young learners have been assessed in two primary school contexts, carried out in a total of seven Austrian primary schools. The schools took part in an initiative where the integration of a foreign language was introduced when children entered primary school at the age of six. (Author/VWL)

Describes the development of materials to support classroom-based assessment in Norway, a country where there is a deliberate policy not to formally assess learners in the early grades of foreign language learning. The teacher development strategy aims to upgrade the assessment skills of teachers and to encourage involvement of primary learners in…

Addresses some of the epistemic and practical issues facing alternative assessment, with particular reference to teacher assessment of spoken English as an additional language/second language (EAL/ESL) in the early years of primary education in England and Wales. (Author/VWL)